7 Unfair Sales Advantages of Top Performers

I've spent 3 decades studying top sales professionals, and the last 15 years training sales people from a broad cross-section of industries and measuring the results they've achieved. There is a very clear picture of what aspiring professionals need to master if they, also, are to gain control of their income.

SUPERIOR RAPPORT

Way beyond matching and mirroring, these are skills that put you deeply in synch even with people who start out being resistant to you.

If the online dating gurus ever got hold of this there'd be mayhem!

Just remember that manipulation is dumb, and use these skills to enhance relationships of all types, and you'll be on the road to higher sales simply because people start connecting with you so much better.

If you'd like to acquire incredible rapport skills you're going to have to practice, but you'll be surprised how quickly they develop, given the right practice! One exercise that you can do is, believe it or not, practiced by synchronised swimming teams each time they perform.

These teams need to be "in synch" if they are to perform in synchronised precision. They take time before each performance to stand in a circle and really connect with each other, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally.

CAN YOU BE A REAL MIND READER?

An amazing level of rapport is one thing, but mind reading, where you actually know what your client is thinking, is a skill that borders on "spooky" but is certainly achievable.

Using accelerated learning techniques, you can quite quickly develop a level of skill in knowing what your client is thinking, even before your client becomes aware of the thought!

How would you like to know for sure which option your client wants, what they think of each and every thing you say, when is the exact right moment to wrap up the sale? Would this be useful to you?

To gain this skill, again practice with your fellow sales team or with some good buddies who'll be patient! Have them silently think of questions that have "yes" as an answer and questions that have "no" as an answer. Once you've experienced this with several people, you'll quickly begin to get a sense of these factors even before the person themselves becomes aware of it.

CLIENT TRAITS THAT YOU MUST KNOW IN ORDER TO MAKE SALES!

Obviously health professionals are aware of a range of personality traits that are useful in therapy, but I can tell you now that most of them are unaware of what I'm about to share with you. And yet these traits, essential for sales people to understand, are THE most important traits when it comes to how people operate in the world, and how they undertake the decision making process!

It might surprise you, but once you've studied that collection of traits, you'll find you've got a natural affinity with them. In fact if you bring to mind even casual acquaintances, you'll find that you can now identify those traits IMMEDIATELY.

Take a look at the following trait and you'll see what I mean. This particular trait is called "match/mismatch".

Have you ever met anyone who seemed to disagree with every single thing you've said? If you say "up" they say "down". If you say "black" they say "white". If you try to agree with them, they change their mind. You just can't seem to win with this person, who habitually mismatches or finds difference with everyone else. The technical term for this trait is "polarity responder", but you've probably already given them your own term: "pain in the posterior"!

On the other hand, there's that equally maddening person who's constantly focussing on the things that are similar or in common, rather than on things that are different or even "new". This type of thinking can be quite counter-productive for a student, for example, because instead of recognising new knowledge, they will discount it by saying something like "Oh yes, this is just like X, and I learned that last year!" They completely miss out on the differences, especially the subtle ones, and therefore fail to learn as well as they could.

Real Life Example

Fred the sales consultant is chatting with Macey the business owner and Macey seems "argumentative". First she says that she has a problem with a certain manufacturing process, and then when Fred, carefully using her own terminology, refers to "the manufacturing problem" she denies that there is a problem! This woman is even mismatching her own statements. (Note from Christine: Yes! These people do actually exist! I met a very senior manager at a major utility company not that long ago who was exactly like this.)

A seemingly difficult situation becomes extremely easy to influence when you realise that the mismatcher is fatally predictable. Fred can simply say "Macey, you might not agree with me that there could be an easier way, but I wonder if you wouldn't find it less costly to ....."

Fred could go on to say (getting closer to wrapping up the deal): "Macey, this particular model isn't for everyone and it might not be attractive to you ...." (she'll be thinking "oh yes it is" because she can't help herself). Once you fully understand all the personality traits you'll find it impossible to clash with your client's "style" ever again.

MILLION DOLLAR QUESTIONS

Clients love these 3 little questions and elite sales performers are experts at asking them, and working with the answers.

These 3 questions can rightly be called "million dollar questions" because they absolutely highlight the client's core values in relation to the product or service being offered, and even tell you the precise words the client needs to hear in order to make a decision to buy.

There are 2 reasons why these questions can be regarded as "gold". They increase your chances of selling by at least double, and they simultaneously build an incredibly deep level of understanding between you and your client, meaning that it's also more likely that you'll receive terrific referrals from this client far into the future.

FINGERTIP CONTROL OF YOUR INCOME

Are you confident at the moment of hitting any sales goal you choose?

Top performers can pull in their desired income year after year because they know and use their own mathematical equation that leads inevitably to a certain sales result.

So far as I'm aware, Frank Bettger was the first professional sales person to formulate and use this mathematical equation to literally choose his income. Even though selling activities have changed, and the skills I've discussed certainly increase effectiveness over older methods, the mathematical equation still holds.

You can calculate your own equation by making a list of all your direct and indirect selling activities along with the time it takes to perform "one unit" of each activity. That's what's leading to your current sales level. So you have your equation. However most people can improve that dramatically by eliminating or reducing activities that aren't paying their way, and implementing others that are more effective. In all my years of sales training, I haven't yet met a single sales person on commission who couldn't at least double their income within 90 days of implementation of this method.

For this equation to work for you, you have to be prepared to plan, document, track and analyse each activity or it just won't happen because you'll still be flying blind. However if you do this, then I absolutely know you're going to be successful beyond your dreams.

TAKE OUT YOUR MAGIC WAND AND MAKE THAT FEAR OR DOUBT DISAPPEAR!

It's all very well to know what to do, and to have the skills to do it, but what if you still can't, and what if you keep procrastinating or sabotaging yourself because of some niggling discomfort?

So what if that's holding you back right now, and every time you think about doing a certain task that's essential for your sales success, you actually feel sick in the stomach? (Or if there's just enough of an unconscious "niggle" that you sabotage yourself anyway?)

A fast and easy way to eliminate these problems has been available for several years now, but only a few especially-skilled therapists know about it.

One of the most powerful of all these techniques is "NeuroStim". It's capable of eliminating depression, chronic pain, fear and anxiety in just days, and sometimes even overnight.

YOUR PAYOFF FOR NETWORKING STRATEGICALLY!

Up until a few years ago we would always recommend that our students and clients join a business networking organisation and we ourselves worked tirelessly to educate members and their organisations to network more ethically and effectively.

It's a tragedy to us that business networking organisations still don't seem to understand the principles of effective networking.

So today we say that if you want to be successful, you need to form your own network of business friends, and engage with it in a quality way, in business hours because after all it's a crucial business activity. A network like this automatically delivers great relationships, superior peer-mentoring, advocacy, joint venture agreements, sharing of resources and expertise, and of course referrals.

No more spending money on networking memberships that don't (or barely) pay for themselves. No more wasting time talking with people with whom you have nothing in common. No more stupid elevator pitches, putting up with complete strangers stuffing their business cards at you or pressuring you for referrals. No more robbing yourself of precious time to spend with family and friends. This is how to play the game so it's personally and professionally enjoyable, and really PAYS OFF! Even if you're a complete introvert like me, you're going to LOVE networking like this!

CAN YOU PUT THIS TOGETHER AND REACH THE TOP?

If you can only do these things, even though there's so much more you can do in terms of skill building, you will certainly join the top echelon of professional sales people in the world today! And you'll deserve it!

The complementary ebook " Speed Business Networking - The Manual" describes the detailed principles and methods that result in effective networking. It's available to individuals and networking organisations who want to network more humanely and more productively.